Intro From Norway

HI,

So, im living in Stavanger, Norway, for the last 8 years.
Started keeping fish in April last year, with a 54l Eheim starter tank.
Had some livebearers, (guppies and Platies) and a couple of Ancistrus, and later some honey Gouramis.

Made my fair share of mistakes in the beginning, but overall did okay and my wife was happy enough to allow me to upgrade to a bigger tank!
So for xmas Santa Claus gave me a 325l tank, a couple of photos are attached.

So the two ancistrus, the platies (that survived my beginner mistakes) and Gouramis have been moved to the Big Tank with some Cardinal tetras.
Added some Angel fish a couple of weeks ago and a pair has formed and have laid eggs! They did hatch but were mercilessly hunted down and eaten......so I think I will use my 54l tank to move the eggs to next time, would gladly hear any advice from anyone here on this subject!

The tap water here in Stavanger has no Chlorine in it so thats good as can fill directly from the tap without adding any conditioners. It is a relatively high PH of 8 but at the same time soft with a KH and GH of 3. With the Tropica Soil, wood and plants, the PH in the tank seems to settle around 7.

Anyway I have lots of questions and lots to learn but really enjoying the hobby and the kids are into it also.

Pictures added

Well spotted Hampalong, there are 3 neons and 8 cardinal tetras. There were 3 lonely neons in the local fish shop so they added them for free when i bought the cardinals, they all school together.

Hi there @fjord_fisk  and welcome to the forum. 

Great to have someone from Norway join the forum. Thanks for the pictures, your tank looks great. 

Hi @fjord_fisk

As others have already said, great to have a TF member in Norway. Welcome! 

I once kept Angel Fish but it was such a long time ago that I can't offer much there. But, I suspect that others here can share their knowledge of keeping these elegant fish. As they lay eggs on leaves, that makes things easy for you to move the eggs to another tank for raising fry. I raised German Blue Ram fry about 18 months ago. It was quite a lot of work preparing the live food but it was such a rewarding experience.

Having a particular interest in water chemistry, I was interested to read that "The tap water here in Stavanger has no Chlorine in it so thats good as can fill directly from the tap without adding any conditioners".  If there's no chlorine in your water, there is a (high?) probability that your tap water contains chloramine. If that's the case, then you would normally need to use a tap water conditioner. A KH and GH of 3dH is, indeed, very soft water. Plenty of suitable fish to choose from there. And, what about that 325 litre tank? So much potential with a tank that size.

I look forward to hearing more about your future plans.

JPC

Thanks for the link @Matt  I've only skimmed through for now, but that's amazing.
I'm not showing it to the fish in case they insist on moving to Norway. 

@jaypeecee Knowing your love for a bit of science and a journal paper, you may wish to read up on the Norwegian water supply systems use of no chemical disinfectants, such as here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40742083_The_Dutch_secret_How_to_provide_safe_drinking_water_without_chlorine_in_the_Netherlands

Hi @Matt

Many thanks for that. I have just read the paper that you cited which, incidentally, refers to the Dutch way of processing water. It makes for very interesting reading. In a nutshell, this is what they do:

"Treat using physical processes such as sedimentation, filtration and UV-disinfection. If it cannot be avoided also oxidation by means of ozone or peroxide can be used, but chlorine is not used..."

I searched this paper within Adobe Reader and the word 'chloramine' doesn't get a mention! Essentially, rather than rely on chemical agents to carry out disinfection, the Dutch system uses ultraviolet light. Using UV-C is such an elegant way of disinfecting water. UV-C is very short wavelength (invisible) 'light' with a wavelength of 253.7nm. The visible spectrum is from 400nm - 700nm.

Does the Norwegian system take the same approach as that adopted by the Dutch system?

JPC

Yes they do, the water pipes are a lot newer and in better condition with less chance of leaks and therefore infiltration of nasties which allows this system to be successful but people must be vigilant of coloured water as this is an indication of ingress to the network and possible contamination. For us it might look bad but it’s probably still safe.

I used to work for a water company. I have also studied environmental management at masters level. It’s definitely an interest of mine!

Hi @fjord_fisk

Very interesting information - thank you! It's really useful to compare tap water between different countries. In the UK, we can get a comprehensive yearly Water Report. It lists a whole range of elements, compounds, herbicides, insecticides, etc. So, things of interest to we aquarists would be hardness, pH, nitrates and the heavy metals, for example. For my water supply in 2017, here are some mean figures:

Nitrate:       29.05 mg/l

Iron:           12.52 micrograms/l

Magnesium:  4.30 mg/l

Copper:        0.08 mg/l

Arsenic:       0.55 micrograms/l

I suspect that your nitrate figure is close to zero but you may prove me wrong.

JPC